We Bought a House

  • Post category:House
  • Reading time:5 mins read

I mentioned back in July that we signed a contract to purchase a house. Well, it is now official. After many months of searching, we think we found the perfect house for us. We did have to make some compromises, though. Stacy wanted to try to move closer to her parents, but after looking in that area and seeing what we could afford, and then finding out that the school district was planning to outsource their special needs kids, we decided to stay in the same area that we already were. We got more house (and land) for our money, the taxes are cheaper, and the school district plans to keep the special needs kids in the district.

We need to send a HUGE shoutout to our awesome real estate agent (my mom), and Stacy’s parents for helping us out with a tough situation. We bought our condo in 2004, and thanks to the financial crisis, the market value on it was less than what we originally paid for it. We started to get really frustrated with all of the lowball offers that people were giving us. Stacy’s parents offered to buy it from us at a fair price. Still less than what we paid for it, but better that those lowball offers we were getting.

As a bonus of Stacy’s parents buying our condo, we are able to continue to live there while we do some work on our new house before we move in, like replace the carpet and paint some of the rooms. Let me take you on a quick tour.

Here’s the front door / foyer. To the left of the front door is the kitchen.

 

Entryway with a white front door featuring decorative glass panels, light wood‑look flooring, beige walls, and an open doorway leading to the kitchen with two windows, white blinds, and a small white step stool on the floor.
Foyer / Entryway

 

This is the view of the foyer standing in the doorway to the kitchen. To the right is the living room, and the doorway on the left is the hallway to the bedrooms.

 

Interior view of a home in mid‑renovation, with light laminate flooring in the foreground, an open doorway leading to a room with bare concrete floors and scattered debris, white walls, a small vent above the doorway, a single outlet on the left wall, and natural light coming through a window in the back room.
Another view of the foyer standing by the kitchen

 

This is the kitchen. Through that doorway on the right is the laundry room and door to the garage. To the left of the windows is the dining room.

 

Kitchen with wooden cabinets, light countertops, two large windows above the sink, a white dishwasher below, and an L‑shaped layout with a peninsula, gas cooktop, an over‑the‑range microwave, and light wood flooring.
The kitchen

 

This is the dining room. On the other side of the dining room is the living room. If you look close, you can see James on the floor in the living room. There are French doors in the living room that lead to the backyard.

 

Empty corner of a room with light walls and wood‑look flooring, two electrical outlets near the baseboard, and an open doorway leading to a carpeted room with scattered belongings and a window with blinds.
Dining room

 

Room corner with closed white French doors featuring built‑in blinds, natural light filtering onto light wood flooring, a curtain rod mounted above, and an open doorway to the left leading to a carpeted room with a window and blinds.
French doors in dining room that lead to the backyard

 

Here are a couple of pics of the living room:

 

Mostly empty living room with beige carpet, light walls, a ceiling fan with wooden blades, a window with closed blinds, a small white step stool near the far wall, and James lying on a colorful blanket on the floor with his suction machine close by.
Living room as viewed by the dining room

 

Mostly empty living room with beige carpet and cream walls, two windows with white blinds on the far wall, a ceiling fan with a light fixture above, several bags and cables near an outlet, and James lying on a colorful blanket in the center of the room.
Living room as viewed by foyer

 

This is the hallway to the bedrooms. The first door on the right will be James’ room. The room at the end of the hall will be my office and storage space. The first door on the left is a bathroom. Just past the bathroom is the door to Stacy’s and my bedroom.

 

Narrow indoor hallway with beige walls and brown carpet, lined with wooden door frames on both sides, one door partially open to a bathroom, and a mustard‑yellow colored wall behind the door at the end of the hall.
Hallway to bedrooms and bathroom

 

This will be James’ room:

 

Empty room with light green and yellow walls, two windows with white blinds and wooden trim, beige carpet flooring, a floor vent beneath the windows, and a mid‑wall decorative border featuring small pastel farm‑themed illustrations.
James’ room

 

Office/ Storage:

 

Empty room with vivid orange walls, two windows with white blinds and wooden trim, bare flooring, and a rolled‑up carpet padding placed near the center of the space.
Office and storage room

 

Hallway Bathroom:

 

Small bathroom with a light blue toilet and matching blue sink set into a beige countertop, pale yellow walls, patterned beige linoleum flooring, and a roll of toilet paper mounted between the toilet and counter.
Bathroom in the hallway

 

Our bedroom:

 

Empty master bedroom with beige carpet and cream walls, a single window with white blinds and wooden trim on the right wall, a ceiling light with a pull chain, baseboards along the walls, and an electrical outlet with a cable plugged in near the corner.
Master bedroom

 

Our bathroom:

 

Small master bathroom with a yellow sink and chrome faucet set into a white countertop, a matching yellow toilet, frosted‑glass shower doors with a handheld showerhead, a three‑panel mirrored cabinet above the sink, and light square tile flooring.
Master bathroom

 

As you can see from the pictures, it does need a little bit of updating. Our plan is to have the carpeting replaced in the living room, hallway, and the three bedrooms; and paint all the rooms before we move in. The bathrooms we can do sometime in the future once our bank account recovers. They are both functional, so we don’t need to rush to update them and bring them into the 21st century.

As we’ve been working, we had to find some things to keep James occupied. We had a little TV/VCR combo in our bedroom so we brought that over so he could watch some movies. We also brought his iPad to keep him entertained. And something pretty big happened. Stacy had setup the iPad for James and opened an app called Peek-a-Boo Barn. It’s a pretty simple app. There is a barn full of animals. When the doors are closed, they knock on the barn door. If you touch the barn, the door opens and reveals an animal. James was actually touching it by himself. If Stacy hadn’t shown me the video that she took, I wouldn’t have believed it. This is one of those milestone moments and I couldn’t be prouder. Take a look for yourself:

 

 

The previous owners had moved out several weeks ago, so the lawn was a bit long and really needed to be mowed. That was today’s project. Here’s a pic of Stacy and James watching me mow the front yard:

 

Side‑by‑side images showing an adult and child indoors in a close moment on the left, and an adult mowing a suburban lawn with a red Toro mower on the right, capturing everyday family life both inside and outside the home.
Mowing the front yard

 

Stacy didn’t want me to have all the fun, so here’s a pic of her mowing the back yard:

 

Residential backyard with two single‑story houses, one tan and one light blue, separated by a fence, with a person mowing the green lawn near the center and trees and foliage in the background.
Stacy mowing the backyard

 

James turns 2 in a week, but since we just bought this house and have so much to do, we will have to postpone his birthday party. We’ll celebrate privately next weekend, and probably have an actual party for him sometime in September or October.